News Headlines You May Have Missed from October 2017

In Western Australia, bird attacks on drones have become a recurring issue for Gold Fields, a mining firm. Gold Fields uses drones from the Belgium-based company Trimble—whose UX5 drone costs $20,000. Gold Fields was surveying the area around Lake Lefroy to use the device's built-in camera to capture high-definition images of potential mining land. The company reported that nine drones were brought down by eagles. Rick Steven, a mine surveyor at Gold Fields, tried painting the drones to look like baby eagles—with little success in diminishing the crashes. The only solution Steven has found is to launch the drones earlier in the morning.

Source: Digital Trends

In Japan, there's a term for death caused by working too much: karoshi. In 2013, a 31-year-old Japanese woman died of congestive heart failure due to overworking. Miwa Sado, a journalist for NHK, Japan's national public broadcasting organization, worked more than 159 hours of overtime in one month. Sado worked every day, including weekends, until midnight covering two major elections. The company initially kept her death a secret until the woman's parents argued that the death should be known in order to prevent it from happening to others. In one year, the country had 191 deaths related to overwork. The government aims to implement a limit on overtime hours as well as better wages for part-time and contract workers.

Source: New York Times, Reuters

The United States prison population is currently the largest in the world. Agnes Gund, a prominent New York art collector, donated $100 million from a Lichtenstein painting that sold for $165 million to start a social justice fund. The Art for Justice Fund aims to help combat the mass incarceration epidemic in the US. The fund will contribute grants to established social justice organizations to further their work in criminal justice reform. It will also help provide ex-prisoners with opportunities for employment and education and promote awareness around social justice work through art. "I actually believe that this Trump phenomenon, which has affected many of us, is going to accelerate the use of art for philanthropy, because people are realizing that art is a vehicle for showing opposition—just look at the signs in the Women's Marches," said Gund. "People are beginning to feel that one of the best ways that they can represent themselves in the community is through art."

Source: NBC News

Marijuana can stimulate the appetite of its users. The use of cannabis from legalized dispensaries has led to an increase in the consumption of fast food. According to an online survey conducted by the Green Market Report and the Consumer Research Around Cannabis organization, 43 percent of legal marijuana-users ate at McDonald's within four weeks of taking the poll. Eighteen percent went to Taco Bell, while 17.8 percent ate at Wendy's. Around 27,500 people responded to the survey. Burger King, KFC, Jack in the Box, and Carl's Jr. also saw increases in food consumption by cannabis users.

Source: Bloomberg

Kentucky Fried Chicken is trending in Ghana, where obesity has already dramatically increased due to other fast-food chains entering the area. Gaining weight is considered to be a triumph over hunger in Ghana. According to Euromonitor between 2011 and 2016, fast food sales in the United States increased by nearly 22 percent, while sales grew 30 percent worldwide. "Healthier" fast food options that are available in the Western world—salads, green beans, and corn—are not available in Ghana. Customers must go online to access the caloric intake of each KFC meal in many African locations—in the US, the numbers are openly displayed on the menu. "To say it's the safest food is a bit like saying my hand grenade is the safest hand grenade," said Mike Gibney, an emeritus professor of food and health at University College Dublin.

Source: New York Times

In 2017, 782 people were shot and killed by police. On Sunday, September 24, more than 200 NFL players intentionally knelt or sat during the national anthem. The act was a sign of protest against police brutality and a corrupt system that does not hold police accountable for killing unarmed individuals. In response, Donald Trump, referring to the former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, stated, "Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when someone disrespects our flag, to say, 'Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He's fired!'" According to the Washington Post, since Kaepernick started kneeling last season, 41 unarmed civilians have been shot and killed by police in the United States—12 of them were African Americans.

Source: The New Yorker, Washington Post

Despite conflicting White House claims that it would provide relief to the middle class, the proposed Republican tax plan would be primarily beneficial for the top one percent of wealthy Americans. According to an analysis conducted by the Tax Policy Center, 80 percent of the supposed tax benefits would go to the top one percent. During late September, Trump stated otherwise in an Indianapolis speech this month, "We're doing everything we can to reduce the tax burden on you and your family. By eliminating tax breaks and loopholes, we will ensure that the benefits are focused on the middle class, the working men and women, not the highest-income earners." The study was conducted based on estimated numbers that could change—the Republican party has not released several key details, such as which tax rate each specific income level will receive.

Source: Washington Post

Nestle pays $200 per year to bottle water near Flint, Michigan—a municipality where residents cannot consume their toxic tap water. In an effort to save money, government officials had switched Flint's water supply from Detroit city water to the contaminated Flint River. After the change, many of the city's residents reported abscesses, hair loss, and other health conditions. Lead exposure in children doubled, and fetal deaths increased by 58 percent. Residents use bottled water for nearly everything, except flushing the toilet, and still end up paying around $200 per month for the undrinkable water. Two hours away from Flint, Nestle pumps almost 100,000 times the amount of water that an average Michigan resident uses into plastic bottles, costing the company $200 per year. The company also wants to increase its bottling by 60 percent and pump 210 million gallons of water. In 2017, bottled water became the most consumed bottled beverage in North America, due in part to fears of contaminated water and concerns about the negative health effects of sugary beverages. In 2016, Nestle had $7.4 billion in bottled water sales.

Source: Guardian

The original print version of this article was titled:
"While You Were Sleeping"